Division II

Baseball

NCAA.com | April 2, 2014

WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- Pat Simone of New Haven and Southern Connecticut State's Rocco Cundari were locked in a pitchers' duel on Wednesday afternoon at Frank Vieira Field. After hanging zeroes through regulation, it was the visiting Owls that scratched out a run in the 10th to steal a 1-0 decision.

With the loss, the Chargers fall to 4-6 on the season with a 2-5 mark in the Northeast-10 overall and an 0-3 record in Southwest Division play. Southern Connecticut State improves to 7-9-1 with a 2-4 NE-10 record and a 1-1 divisional tally.

Simone was dominant through eight innings, scattering four singles with seven strikeouts and no walks. In three starts against Northeast-10 opponents this spring, he has surrendered two earned runs in 21 innings of work.

The Chargers were led at the plate by Eddie Tammaro, who went 3-for-4 from the designated hitter spot. TJ Riccio, also reached safely on three occasions with two of New Haven's seven base hits.

Simone allowed just one runner to reach second base heading into the ninth inning, when a leadoff single followed by an error chased the southpaw from the game. John Melville took the ball for the Chargers and induced three groundball outs - including a diving snare by first baseman Zach Collett on a rocket headed down the right field line - to get out of the jam and keep the Owls off the board.

However, Melville went on to take the hard luck loss in the 10th. SCSU's Brandon Docimo legged out an infield hit to start the extra frame and moved to second base on a sacrifice fly. A groundout moved him to third with two down, and a Matt Burns bloop single just to the grass beyond second base brought home the game's only run.

Melville (0-2) finished with two infield hits allowed as well as a hit batter in two innings of work.

New Haven had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 10th, started with a one-out walk issued to Kyle Cullen. Cullen then swiped second base with two down, and Riccio worked a walk of his own. Tammaro followed with his third hit of the day, but the left fielder Docimo scooped up the single to shallow left field and fired a strike to catcher T.J. Shea to nab Cullen - the potential tying run - and end the game.

Cundari (2-1) went nine innings for the Owls, scattering six singles and one walk while striking out seven. Pat Egan - typically a weekend starter for SCSU - was the benefactor of Docimo's throw en route to a scoreless 10th and his first save of the spring.